SUGAR AND
KIT INSTRUCTIONS

Beer kits, packaged in cans with all
manner of beer styles to choose from, are a welcome
introduction to home brewing for many. They are simple to
use and require minimal processing. They are designed so
that they do not intimidate a new home brewer with
overwhelming procedures or concerns. A good beer can be made
from many of them. However, if you want to make better beer
or you want to help others improve upon their own kit beers,
here’s some advice that will result in major improvements in
beer flavour. Whenever a beer kit calls for the addition of
sugar in a recipe, substitute the sugar for light malt
extract or dextrose. You will end up with a beer that tastes
like something you would want to pay money for. The sugar is
in there for one purpose-to bring the alcohol level up to
full strength, that is, around 5%. It adds very little
flavour to the beer, although alcohol itself is a flavour
enhancer, rather like salt on your potato chips. However,
because of biochemical reactions that are a mystery to me
but which greatly exercise the minds of brewing chemists,
the use of such large amounts of sugar leaves the finished
product with an acidic, cidery flavour. I don’t know
about you but I can’t take too much of this flavour, after
one glass, or maybe even two, the acidic, cidery effect
becomes unpleasant.

KIT BEERS:
SIMPLE FINESSE WITH HOPS

The use of fresh whole or pelletized hops in a knowledgeable manner
can immensely improve the quality of your home brewed beers. It is
relatively inexpensive and the procedures are virtually worry-free.
Most kit beers are designed to have relatively low bitterness. Many
are flavoured with hop extract, which contributes bitterness but
none of the other often desirable hop characteristics to the beer.
Along with substituting light malt extract or dextrose for the sugar
that many kit instructions call for, adding a small amount of
bittering hops will help balance the flavour. For a 23litre
batch,12-14g of low to medium bittering hops such as Hallertauer,
Cascade

Goldings or Willamette boiled for 10-20 minutes will make a
positive and noticeable contribution to your kit beer. Adding 12-14g
of low to medium hops that are noted for their flavour during the
last 5-10 minutes of the boil will contribute a complex hop flavour
that will otherwise be lacking if hop extract is listed as an
ingredient of the kit beer. Fuggles, Willamette, Hallatuaer, Mt
Hood, Cascade, Goldings, Tettanger and Saaz are among the more
popular aroma hops. Finally, to add aromatic finesse to any beer,
add 5-10g of aroma hops during the last minute of the boil, then
immediately strain, spurge and transfer to your fermenter. By
including this step in your brewing process, you will create a
balance, complexity and depth of character in your beer that is
missing from most kit beers. For those who choose to continue their
brewing endeavours with simple kit beers, these three hop infusions
may provide the complexity and satisfaction you have been seeking in
your homebrewed beer.

ENHANCING YOUR
YEAST’S PERFORMANCE

Yeast Re-Hydration

If you are using dried yeasts you may have had trouble with
slow-starting fermentations. These can be a worry because the
unprotected, room-temperature wort can easily pick up infections
from wild yeasts and bacteria while it is waiting for the yeast
to go to work. One way to get round this is to re-hydrate the
yeast. This is a simple technique which ensures that the yeast
is alive and ready to go the moment you pitch it.

Boil 250mls of water for 5 minutes then pour it into a
sterilized glass jar and cool it down to approximately 26/28
degrees C. Tear open your sachet of yeast and sprinkle it into
the liquid. Leave the jar for 15 to 30 minutes, by which time
you will see signs of bubbling and other activities. By now you
should have a very cloudy looking jar of liquid. Simply put this
into your cooled wort and it will go rapidly to work

Yeast Starters

Another way of getting your yeast off to a quicker start, and
also checking that it is alive and kicking, is to make a yeast
starter from a little bit of malt extract. Use the same
technique as for re-hydration, except for two things. Add one
tablespoon of malt extract to your 250ml of water before
bringing it to the boil. Then, cool the solution down to 25
degrees C rather than 30 and add your yeast. Leave it aside for
at least 30/40 minutes, preferably longer, until you see strong
signs of activity, then pitch it into your wort. If there are no
signs of yeast activity in the starter within one hour, it may
mean you have a poor quality sample of yeast. In that case,
throw it away and start again with another batch.

YEAST
CULTURING

One way of getting a commercial yeast is to culture one from
a bottled beer. Not many beers are suitable for this as most of
them have been pasturised before being put on sale, killing off
any yeasts in them that filtration hasn’t taken out. However,
here in Australia, Coopers Sparkling Ale, Pale Ale and Extra
Stout all contain yeast sediment which can be cultured and used
to brew your own beer. It will take usually take two or three
days to do, so plan ahead.

Once again, make up a starter solution and cool it down. Take
a 750ml bottle of Coopers, making sure it is clear and the yeast
sediment has all sunk to the bottom. Gently pour off all the
beer but the last inch or so in the bottom of the bottle (into a
couple of glasses preferably), then pour in your yeast starter
on top of the sediment. Shake well, fit a cork with an air lock,
and wait for the yeast activity to start. When it is foaming
like a glass of carbonated beer and the air lock is showing
movement, pitch it into your wort.

If you're not ready to use your culture at that point, put
the whole thing in the fridge until you are ready to pitch it.
It should keep for at least a week.

RACKING

SECONDARY
FERMENTATION

Your
first step to becoming a better brewer has to do with adding
more and better ingredients to your homebrew. The second is
about conditioning your brew differently, and fittingly for a
second step, it’s called “Secondary Fermentation”

Secondary, or two-stage, fermentation is all about conditioning
your beer. At the beginner’s level, you put the fresh wort in
the primary fermenter, let the yeast do its thing, and then
bottle the beer. The beer has about two weeks to condition in
the bottle before you start sucking it down. That’s the right
thing to do when your equipment and expertise are limited, but
you can do better.

Taking
the freshly fermented beer out of the primary fermenter is
necessary in the beginning process not just because the initial
fermentation is over but also because all those little yeasties,
fresh from a gluttonous feast, are about to start consuming
themselves. That’s right: Given the opportunity, sugar-crazed
yeast will cannibalize. This horrific event is called yeast
autolysis. Autolysis can impart a sulfury, rubbery stench
and flavour to your beer. Leaving your fresh, young beer sitting
on that bulging layer of self-destructing yeast dregs is akin to
letting your child wallow with pigs in the mud – and you
wouldn’t want to smell either one of them when they were done.

Now that
you are introducing more ingredients to the brew, more flavours
and textures in the beer, it needs to blend, and for this
melding process, time has no substitute.

By
allowing the beer to undergo a secondary fermentation – by
expanding the fermentation’s time – you are promoting a
mellowing process, one that will make a noticeable improvement
in your beer. Because most of the consumable sugars in the wort
have already been eaten, secondary fermentation yields very
little yeast activity and rarely produces a measurable amount of
additional alcohol. This stage is just an opportunity for all
the beer’s ingredients to acclimate and establish a tasty
relationship.

Secondary fermentation isn’t worth the effort unless you allow
the beer to mellow in the fermenter for at least one week; two
to three weeks is the norm, and a month or more may be needed
for barley wines, Imperial stouts, and other complex and
high-gravity beers. Thus, bottling will be delayed considerably.

One
final vote in support of secondary fermentation: Using this
procedure, not only do you have nothing to fear regarding
unfinished primary fermentations (and exploding bottles), but
you can actually cut the primary fermentation time by a day or
two and rack the beer over to the secondary fermenter at your
convenience. Racking is possible only after the peak
fermentation activity subsides. Usually after the 4 - 5 day

Dissolve
75g of sugar in 300mls of boiling water. Pour this into your
sterilized second fermenter (R&B bin). Transfer the beer from
your primary fermenter to your R&B bin as described in “Bulk
Priming”.

Refit
the lid and air lock on your R&B bin making sure the lid is on
securely and there is water in the air lock. Now put your R&B
bin in place where it will not be disturbed, and allow the beer
to condition for a minimum of 10 days. The addition of sugar to the beer in the
R&B bin is to cause the beer to start fermenting again and
produce a thin layer of carbon dioxide over the top of
your beer which will help stop infections and stop your beer
from oxidizing. (it is
not for carbonating your beer)

Remember: No
phase of homebrewing is exempt from cleaning and sanitizing.
Adding another fermentation phase means
disinfecting all the equipment that goes along with it. Might as
well get used to it and stop complaining.

I have used the 2 methods Racking and
Bulk Priming with great success.

You will be amazed at the
difference it makes to the quality of your homebrew.

Cheers….Les Smith

“Bread is
the staff of life, But beer is life itself.”

BULK PRIMING

Individually priming each bottle before
filling is a time consuming, messy and potentially inaccurate
method of conditioning (carbonating) your beer.

This is how to go about bulk priming
using your R&B bin (racking & bottling bin)

EQUIPMENT

1 EXTRA FERMENTER- (R&B bin) the same
size as your primary fermenter.

1 LENGTH OF TUBING- about 2m in length.

1 TUBE TO TAP ADAPTOR.

1 EXTRA TAP- for your R&B bin.

METHOD

It goes without saying that the first
step is to thoroughly sterilize all the equipment.

Next, place your fermenter (the one with
your brew in it) on the bench and position your R&B bin on the
floor below it. Fit the length of tubing onto the tap of your
fermenter with the brew in it, using the adaptor if necessary,
then run the other end of the tubing through the grommet hole in
the R&B bin lid pushing the tubing right to the bottom of the
bin, keep going until the tubing is curled at least a half
circle, this will ensure the brew is moved gently into the
bottom of the bottling bin helping to eliminate the introduction
of oxygen to the brew, it also mixes the priming solution.

The priming solution is simply 210gto 230g Dextrose dissolved in 400ml of boiling water,
have this prepared in a covered container.

OK, you’ve got your R&B bin in position
and ready to go, tip the priming solution into it and put the
lid back on, next release the seal on the fermented containing
your brew,

With screw top fermenters simply
unscrew the lid and leave in position, with clip lid types just
unclip one section, doing this will stop the liquid in your
airlock being sucked back into the brew, alternatively, pull the
airlock out of the lid.

Turn on the tap, get yourself a glass of
HomeBrew, essential for the next step, bottling.

As soon as the tap starts to suck air,
either turn it off or tilt the fermented to pick up the last
litre or so. Now gently stir the brew, about 6 revolutions is
ample.

It is now time to bottle – of course you
have your already sterilized bottles waiting to be filled. Lift
the now filled R&B bin onto your work bench, leaving the tubing
attached if you can, now change the tubing from the fermented
tap to the R&B bin tap, withdraw the tube from the R&B bin and
attach your brewers bottler to it. You can fill your bottles by
lining them up on the floor and going from bottle to bottle with
the flexible tube. Better still arrange things so your R&B bin
is up above your bench work surface then you can bottle your
beer in comfort at about waist height.

The reason I started bulk priming was
the same reason the Yanks do, I wanted to bottle my brews into
stubbies (in the US they don’t have 750’s) and priming 60
bottles is bad enough but I usually do a couple of batches at a
time hence my interest. What I didn’t anticipate was the
improvement in the condition of the beer. It seems that the use
of dextrose, which we already knew was a faster and cleaner
fermentable, greatly enhances the beading of the beer. That is
it quickly produces a finished beer with very fine bubbles, this
presents as a fine creamy head which provides excellent lace on
the glass – just what the home brewer ordered!